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NAPLAN is a series of tests covering Literacy and Numeracy administered nationally to all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each year. NAPLAN provides schools and families with an indication of how each child is progressing in their learning against national standards; it also gives us as a school an insight into how we are tracking with our curriculum plans. 

This year NAPLAN has moved from May to earlier in the year in March. This is to allow schools to get access to the data from NAPLAN in a more timely manner. There are also changes coming to the way results are reported to parents with a move to a four-point scale and more information about each part of the scale. No doubt you will start to see competing opinions in the media as to the value or otherwise of the NAPLAN tests. This increased media coverage can cause some students to feel stressed about taking the tests. Please reassure your child that a NAPLAN test does not define their worth.

At MECS, we believe that education should be Christ-Centred and Child Oriented. This means that we use the Biblical Story to provide the framework for our curriculum, and then within that, we recognise the skills, abilities and giftings of our students. We then use the biblical framework and student orientation to help shape our taught curriculum. NAPLAN is part of a range of data that helps us with this orientation process by providing us with information on how students are progressing against the national curriculum standards.

NAPLAN is run using an online test version (except for Year 3 Writing which is still pen and paper). The online environment allows for testing to be adaptive, which means that questions are delivered to students based on their previous answers; the more correct answers means that questions at a higher level will be given. More incorrect answers will then have questions delivered at a more manageable level. This means we can get a more accurate idea of how students are progressing. If you are interested in more information about NAPLAN, please look at the following website NAP - Parent/carer support

Lisa Dumicich

Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning